CFL Obituaries: Blue Bombers went down firing their guns

As each CFL team's season comes to an end, we're going to look back on the highs, lows and issues they faced this year. Rather than doing so with Dear John letters or eulogies from their opponents, we're going to borrow a classic writer's trick and anthropomorphize each team's season with a newspaper-style obituary. First up: your 2010 Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

The Bombers did not go gently into that good night, however, and almost took the Edmonton Eskimos with them before falling 16-13 in overtime last week in a game that could have potentially doomed Edmonton's playoff aspirations. They put up another valiant effort Friday against the Calgary Stampeders, but again came up just short, losing 35-32.

The Bombers' lack of wins can be traced to three serious causes. First, they suffered from continually rotating quarterbacks. Opening-day starter Buck Pierce played very well when healthy, but suffered several injuries, including one that proved season-ending against Saskatchewan in early September. Steven Jyles also performed very capably in relief, but never seemed to quite earn the full trust of head coach Paul LaPolice, and was even (perhaps unfairly) yanked for the untested Alex Brink.

The second major issue that led to the Bombers' demise was an inability to win close games. They set a CFL record with nine losses by four points or less, which explains why they finished with a not-bad -21 point differential (miles ahead of potentially playoff-bound Edmonton's -155) but a 4-14 record. It also explains why some feel their season was cut down too young. Some observers, including Peter James, have viewed those close-game struggles as an indictment of LaPolice and the coaching staff, and there's certainly some merit to that. There were definitely moments where different play-calling or decisions might have made a difference, including one Friday night where the Bombers elected to punt while down by three with less than two minutes left.

However, not all close games are equal. A three-point overtime loss to a battered Edmonton team starting a backup quarterback who throws four interceptions isn't terribly impressive (despite Winnipeg's own quarterback issues in that game), and a 16-14 loss to the poorly-playing B.C. Lions is even worse. On the other hand, Winnipeg deserves credit for games where they kept it within four against strong teams like Calgary and Montreal. Going into those games, they were expected to lose by a lot, so keeping it close is really more of a positive reflection on the coaching staff and the players than a negative one.

Penalties and discipline were the third crucial cause of the Bombers' demise. Winnipeg had the second-most penalty yards in the CFL heading into Friday's action with 1,654 and took plenty more last night, including a 15-yard penalty to Terrence Jeffers-Harris for the awesome cannon celebration pictured above. As Yahoo!'s Greg Wyshynski pointed out the other day, everything else is "irrelevant when you have an [expletive] cannon," so that may have been a worthwhile penalty. It didn't make LaPolice particularly happy, though, as the picture at right demonstrates.

The Bombers' 2010 season is survived by general manager Joe Mack and head coach Paul LaPolice (for the moment, anyway). Reid, Edwards and many of their other strong players are also expected to return next year, and they'll certainly be hoping for better results than this 4-14 record, the team's worst since 1998. In memory of the Bombers' 2010 season, donations to their new stadium project will be gratefully accepted, especially if those donations come from government and help to cover the current $45 million funding gap.

Feel free to leave your memories of and tributes to the 2010 Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the comments below.